Ernie Banks
(Jan 31, 1931–Jan. 23, 2015)
Hall of Famer and prominent professional Major League Baseball player Ernie Banks, or more notably referred to as “Mr. Cub”, played for the Chicago Cubs from 1953 to 1971. Ernie Banks was the Cubs’ first African-American player and one of the first Negro League players to join the MLB without first playing in the minor leagues. He is regarded as one of the greatest Cubs players of all time. In 2013, Ernie was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to sports.
Walter Newberry
(Sept. 18, 1804–Nov. 6, 1868)
Real estate investor Newberry organized the Whig party in Illinois and helped Ogden become Chicago’s first mayor. He was president of Chicago’s first Young Men’s Library Association, a member of the board of health, the board of education, and a major contributor to St. Paul’s Evangelical Church. An antislavery man, Newberry joined the Republican Party, and supported Abraham Lincoln for the Senate and the presidency. He donated to the Orphans Benevolent Association and helped to found the Chicago Historical Society. After his death, his wishes were carried out and $2.1 million and some prime city property were donated to the Newberry Library, which became one of the world’s great research libraries.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Inez Clarke
(Sept. 20, 1873–Aug. 1, 1880)
This grave with the statue of a young girl is marked “Inez” and “Daughter of J.N. & M.C. Clarke.” For decades the girl’s identity had been in question. It is now all but certain that the girl is Inez Briggs, the daughter of Mary C. Clarke from a previous marriage. Legends of the girl have been numerous. One states she died when struck by lightning during a picnic or when locked outside ... from this came another that the statue disappears during thunderstorms because Inez is so afraid.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Howard van Doren Shaw
(May 7, 1869–May 6, 1926)
Shaw’s privileged upbringing included the Harvard School (Chicago preparatory school), earning early acceptance Yale, architectural training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and extensive travel to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and England, where he sketched measured drawings of significant architecture. He returned to Chicago, working in the office of William Le Baron Jenney (inventor of the steel frame skyscraper).
photo and text by Joe Collier
László Moholy-Nagy
(July 20, 1895–Nov. 24, 1946)
Hungarian-born abstract painter, designer, typographer, photographer, filmmaker and theorist. After being severely wounded in the Austro-Hungarian Army, started to draw and paint. Appointed in 1923 to the Bauhaus at Weimar, first as head of the metal workshop, then experimented in photography. Moved in 1937 to Chicago, and became director of the New Bauhaus and later opened his own School of Design.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Allan Pinkerton
(Aug. 25, 1819–July 1, 1884)
One of America’s first undercover agents, Civil War scout and guardian of President Lincoln. Founded the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, providing detective services, capturing train robbers and counterfeiters. The agency had the world’s largest collection of mug shots and a criminal database. The agency’s logo, the All-Seeing Eye, inspired the term “Private Eye.” Near Pinkerton’s monument are memorials to two agents who helped foil an assassination attempt at Lincoln’s inauguration, Kate Warne (described by Pinkerton as America’s first female detective) and Timothy Webster (later hanged by the Confederacy as a spy).
photo and text by Joe Collier
William Hulbert
(Oct. 23, 1832–Apr. 10, 1882)
Hulbert was part owner of the Chicago White Stockings, later to become the Cubs. He and Albert Spalding founded the National League in 1876. He was elected National League president and is credited with establishing respectability, through opposition to betting, rowdiness and other abuses. His monument in the shape of a baseball is one of the most unique in Graceland, and features the eight original cities that comprised the National League.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Marshall Field
(Aug. 18, 1834–Jan. 16, 1906)
Marshall Field is a celebrated name in retail and Chicago history. In 1865 he and Levi Zeigler Leiter joined the merchandising firm of Potter Palmer. When Palmer withdrew, the firm became Field, Leiter and Co. In 1881 Field bought out Leiter for $2,500,000, naming it Marshall Field and Company. In an age of unethical merchandising, Field emphasized customer service, liberal credit, the one-price system, the privilege of returning merchandise, and the department-store restaurant. Field is credited with the phrases, “Give the lady what she wants,” and “The customer is always right.” Field’s estate was valued at $125,000,000. Among his beneficiaries were the University of Chicago and the Columbian Museum (later the Field Museum of Natural History). His grandson Marshall Field III (1893–1956) founded the Chicago Sun (afterward the Chicago Sun-Times).
photo and text by Joe Collier
Cyrus McCormick
(Feb. 15, 1809–May 13, 1884)
McCormick was an industrialist and inventor of the first commercially successful reaper – a horse-drawn machine to harvest wheat – basing his work on that of his father and others. He formed what became McCormick Harvesting Machine Company where he innovated marketing and distribution techniques. McCormick’s achievements have impacted agribusiness around the world.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Richard Nickel
(May 31, 1928–Apr. 13, 1972)
Noted architectural photographer Richard Nickel ironically died in Louis Sullivan’s Stock Exchange building, then under demolition. Nickel spent over 20 years cataloging and collecting the works of Sullivan and other building designers – measuring and photographing Sullivan buildings. He set up his camera about the time buildings were coming down, and he returned to sites at night to salvage decorative bits and pieces he could carry off – terra cotta, stone, metal castings. Through his efforts we have a much better record of some of the greatest buildings in Chicago architectural history.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(Mar. 27, 1886–Aug. 17, 1969)
Mies spent the first half of his career in his native Germany. Emphasizing open space and revealing industrial materials used in construction, he helped define modern architecture and found the second Chicago School of architecture. The Armour Institute of Technology engaged Mies as director, Department of Architecture, seeking international stature, and Mies was a logical choice toward this goal. He had achieved international recognition as director of the Bauhaus school of design in Germany, 1930 through 1933. Mies’ master plan for the IIT campus, and numerous buildings throughout Chicago, including the Loop Post Office, still stand as masterworks of modern architecture.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Philip Armour
(May 16, 1832–Jan. 6, 1901)
Chicago’s reputation as “Hog Butcher for the World” is due largely to Armour, builder of Chicago’s largest meatpacking company, and also a philanthropist. Armour resisted trade unions and helped defeat strikes. His chief philanthropic interest lay in training young people. Armour Mission, a nondenominational community center, sponsored classes and activities for children. Armour Institute, later changed to Illinois Institute of Technology, taught engineering, architecture, and library science at nominal cost and would eventually welcome noted architects Mies van der Rohe and László Moholy-Nagy to the faculty.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Getty Tomb
The monument, erected in 1890 to Carrie Eliza Getty, deceased wife of Henry Harrison Getty, a prominent Chicago businessman. Considered to be among Sullivan’s finest works, it was designated a city landmark in 1971 by the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks. Frank Lloyd Wright called it “entirely Sullivan’s own, a piece of sculpture, a statue, a great poem.”
photo and text by Joe Collier
Daniel Burnham
(Sept. 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912)
Perhaps the most influential architect and urban planner in Chicago history, Burnham became a draftsman for famed architect William Le Baron Jenney, father of the modern skyscraper. In 1873 he persuaded friend and colleague John Root to form their own architectural firm, Burnham & Root, which became known for the 10-story Montauk Block – perhaps the first building to be labeled a “skyscraper” – the Rookery, the second Rand McNally Building, the Monadnock Building, and the Masonic Temple. He was director of works at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. He believed that an improved urban environment could provide a positive transformative experience for inhabitants. Burnham’s masterwork, the 1909 Plan of Chicago, is considered a landmark in urban planning history.
photo and text by Joe Collier
John Altgeld
(Dec. 30, 1847–Mar. 12, 1902)
Altgeld was a reformist Democratic governor of Illinois (1893–97). He was elected to the superior court of Cook county (1886–91), later nominated for governor (1892) and elected by farm and labor voters. The following year he was petitioned by attorney Clarence Darrow, labor leaders, and others to grant clemency to three of the men convicted in the Haymarket Riot. His decision evoked an outcry by businesses and the conservative press, which branded the governor as a friend to anarchists. A year later, Altgeld’s protest to President Grover Cleveland against the use of federal troops in the Pullman Strike produced further vitriolic attacks. Altgeld’s achievements as governor included improvements in the penal system and child labor legislation. Upon leaving office, he practiced law in partnership with Darrow.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Charles Wacker
(Aug. 29, 1856–Oct. 31, 1929)
Born in Chicago, Wacker was a businessman and philanthropist, Vice Chairman of the General Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and Chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission. As Commission Chairman, he championed Burnham’s plan for improving Chicago, including public addresses and publishing Wacker’s Manual of the Plan of Chicago (by Walter D. Moody) as a textbook for local schoolchildren.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Potter Palmer
(May 20, 1826–May 4, 1902)
In 1852 Palmer opened a dry goods store on Lake Street, then Chicago’s commercial center, and was among the first to appreciate the importance of attractive displays including prices of goods and the value of heavy advertising. Palmer also allowed customers to take goods on approval and “charge” purchases. Soon most Chicago merchants adopted the “Palmer system.” In 1865 Marshall Field and Levi Leiter took over creating Field, Palmer, and Leiter – later Marshall Field & Co. He invested heavily in real estate, and brought all of Chicago’s principal stores to State Street, redefining its business district. He is best known for building the Palmer House Hotel. Palmer helped to lay out Lake Shore Drive, was an original incorporator of the Chicago Board of Trade, and helped plan the World’s Columbian Exposition.
photo and text by Joe Collier
William Goodman
(1848–1936)
An American lumber tycoon, he came to Chicago and is famous for helping to found the Goodman Theatre through a gift of $250,000. The donation was made in memory of his son Kenneth Sawer Goodman, a playwright who had envisioned a theater, which elevated professional training and performance standards. Notable architect Howard Van Doren Shaw designed the tomb memorializing his son.
photo and text by Joe Collier
William Kimball
(1828–1904)
Pianos and reed and pipe organ manufacturer Kimball was born in Rumford Maine, and made his fortune in real estate. Before the panic of 1857, he moved to Chicago and acquired a music store. In 1879 he began building pianos and organs, and was so successful that in 1882 he went into full-scale production. Kimball Avenue in Chicago is named for him.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Louis Sullivan
(Sept. 3, 1856–Apr. 14, 1924)
Sullivan, an influential architect of the Chicago School, is often called the “prophet of modern architecture,” and conceived the phrase, “form ever follows function.” Among his works are the Auditorium Theater, the Carson-Pirie Scott store, and the Charnley House. He influenced the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, who spent over six years as Sullivan’s chief draftsman. Sullivan’s architecture is a “mixture of plain geometry and undisguised massing punctuated with elaborate pockets of ornamentation in stone, wood and terra cotta.” He was buried with a small stone marker, but in five years a more fitting memorial was designed by Thomas Tallmadge with Sullivan’s profile set in one of his own designs.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Ryerson Tomb
Ryerson, Sr. (Jan. 6, 1818–Sept. 6, 1887), a successful lumber baron, became wealthier in real estate. His son, Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), joined the lumber business after several years of practicing law. Ryerson, Sr. was a trustee at the Art Institute of Chicago, an incorporator of the Field Museum, involved in founding the University of Chicago and a member of its first board of trustees. The Ryerson Tomb, designed by architect Louis H. Sullivan, melded two Egyptian-styled buildings, the pyramid and the mastaba. It is unique among Egyptian Revivals owing to its lack of overt, exterior Egyptian decoration.
photo and text by Joe Collier
George Pullman
(Mar. 3, 1831–Oct. 19, 1897)
Renowned for luxury rail cars, Pullman made his original fortune by raising buildings. His system of using groups of men with jacks elevated buildings so smoothly that businesses could continue to operate during the procedure. Pullman then invested in his Pullman rail car empire, culminating in the creation of the town bearing the Pullman name. At his death he was known for refusing to negotiate with unions, and his family feared desecration of his grave. Therefore, his Graceland tomb was built of steel-reinforced concrete. The grave was then sodded and fitted with the Corinthian column and exedra present today.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Peter Schoenhofen
(Feb. 2, 1827–Jan. 7, 1893)
Peter Schoenhofen was among Chicago brewers who enhanced production and expanded transportation options. The Schoenhofen Brewery and the brewery district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Administration Building and Powerhouse were designated Landmarks.
photo and text by Joe Collier
John W. Root
(Jan. 10, 1850–Jan. 15, 1891)
One of the greatest architects in the Chicago School, his works are distinguished early attempts at aesthetic expression of the height and the function of the skyscraper. As the chief designing partner at the famous Burnham and Root firm, he created The Rookery and the north half of the Monadnock Building – at 16 stories, regarded as the world’s tallest office building with load-bearing walls.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Victor Lawson
(Sept. 9, 1850–Aug. 19, 1925)
Born in Chicago to a Norwegian immigrant laborer who prospered in real estate. He became publisher of the Chicago Daily News. Over 29 years, Lawson’s newspaper business innovations included advancements in promotion, classified advertising, syndication of news stories, serials, and comics. Lorado Taft’s 1931 “Crusader” stands guard over the grave. Lawson contributed anonymously to many charities, and even his grave is unmarked, except for the statue and the phrase, “Above all things truth beareth away the victory.”
photo and text by Joe Collier
Jack Johnson
(Mar. 31, 1878–June 10, 1946)
First black heavyweight champion boxer, excoriated for marrying white women three times, and further offending white supremacists by knocking out “Great White Hope” champion James J. Jeffries. His memorial is a large stone monument, with a smaller one for his first wife, Etta.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Daniel Elston
(May 20, 1780–Sept. 13, 1855)
Elston, a British merchant, came to Chicago and manufactured soap, candles, and erected a distillery and brewery. He was school inspector and alderman, but lost his offices when his lands were removed from the city bounds by the legislature. Elston Avenue is named for him.
photo and text by Joe Collier
John Kinzie
(Dec. 3, 1763–Jan. 6, 1828)
Chicago’s first permanent white settler. He traded with the soldiers at Fort Dearborn and the natives. Originally buried at the Fort Dearborn Cemetery, Kinzie’s remains were moved to City Cemetery in 1835. When the cemetery was closed for the development of Lincoln Park, Kinzie’s remains were moved to Graceland Cemetery. Kinzie Avenue is named for him.
photo and text by Joe Collier
William LeBaron Jenney
(Sept. 25, 1832–June 14, 1907)
Renowned architect/engineer credited with inventing steel frame techniques, which led to the first skyscrapers. As West Parks Commission chief engineer, he designed Humboldt, Garfield and Douglas parks and the boulevards that connect them. He contributed to the landscape design of Graceland Cemetery. He worked on the Home Insurance Building, located at Adams and LaSalle streets, an iron-and-steel-framed high-rise widely recognized as the world’s first true skyscraper. He trained young architects; among them were Daniel Burnham, John W. Root, and Louis Sullivan.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Dexter Graves
(c.1793–Apr. 29, 1845)
Graves built a hotel and was listed among “500 Chicagoans” on the census taken prior to Chicago’s incorporation. On his grave is a haunting bronze figure entitled “Eternal Silence” created by Lorado Taft in 1909.
photo and text by Joe Collier
Eli Williams
(1799–1881)
Williams settled in Chicago in 1833 when the population numbered 200, and built a store on South Water Street, making his fortune in real estate and public utilities. His is a typical Victorian monument, a vine-covered woman holding a cross.
photo and text by Joe Collier